Exploring Identity Through Art

Artward Bound is a nationally recognized program that is unique to Holderness School. This ten-day program strives to breakdown the perceived boundaries of what it means to be artistic.

Every year, we invite working artists from all over the country, who specialize in a variety of media, to work closely with and perform alongside our students and faculty. They teach, inspire, and guide our students as they unleash their creative spirit. Our hope for our sophomores is that they discover the role art can play in exploring their identities and understanding their places in the world.

With the 9th, 11th, and 12th grades engaged in their own Special Programs off campus, it is a time that binds the sophomore class together; the campus becomes their creative playground, and they discover their artistic passions while forging new friendships.

Visiting Artists

List of 8 items.

Grace Rapetti is a seasoned singer/songwriter and certified music therapist in Rockport, MA. She graduated magna cum laude from the Berklee College of Music and is a renowned singer, songwriter, and performer who has written and recorded with numerous legendary artists. John Mayer, a personal mentor and co-writer, considers Grace’s writing “rare stuff." She has sung and shared stages with Willie Nelson, Carol King, Bobby McFerrin, The Eagles, Annie Lennox, and West African sensation, Angelique Kidjo. Grace was a six-year member of the 2017 international acapella champions, Women of the World. She has sung on the legendary stages of Carnegie Hall and the Blue Note in NYC. Grace toured nationally with the punk band Big D and the Kids Table, and throughout the world with an African Hi-Life band. She was featured in Rolling Stone and on NPR for her version of the Beck’s “Old Shanghai." In June 2016, Grace sang the national anthem at the Democratic Convention for Massachusetts. Her voice is recognized worldwide on Disney ringtones for T-mobile Japan, and you can find her both teaching and learning on subjects like songwriting and hospice music therapy on coursera.org, Berklee Online, and Writer’s Digest.

Ara Cardew is a master potter with over twenty years experience in all areas of stoneware and porcelain pottery production, including throwing, slipware, glaze development, decoration, and firing. Ara apprenticed with his grandfather, Michael Cardew, and managed the family pottery, Wenford Bridge Pottery, Cornwall, England for many years. Locally he has been a production potter for Miranda Thomas, Simon Pearce, and Tariki. His teaching emphasis is on forms and decorations of the English slipware tradition.

Jack Mauch is a New England-based designer and studio-craftsman who’s work encompasses a wide range of media, functions and scale. He was born in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to a large family that values both art and alternative education. As a result, there were no objections when Jack elected to quit high school at age 16 in order to pursue art full-time as a student at the Maine College of Art in Portland, ME. Drawn to the physicality and technical demands of craft, Jack doubled majored in ceramics and woodworking, setting a precedent that he would juggle multiple materials within one creative practice. He earned a BFA from MECA in 2006 and shortly after moved to Cambridge, MA where he worked as lead fabricator for the exhibitions department at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Through this experience Jack continued to expand his knowledge of materials and design processes while having the opportunity to learn from some of the world’s leading architects and designers. In 2011, seeking to return to his own creative practice, Jack obtained a two-year Core Fellowship at the Penland School of Crafts in mountains of Western North Carolina. During this seminal time Jack was able hone his skills and develop an aesthetic voice by studying with dozens of expert artists and craftsman. Jack has had an independent studio practice since 2013. His current work focuses on pushing the physical and visual limits of wood veneer to create complex surfaces for furniture and art. Jack has taught at the Penland School of Crafts, the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and at Harvard University’s Eliot House. He recently received Fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston. His work has been featured in numerous print and online publications and is displayed in public and private collections alike. He lives and works in Sandwich, NH but often travels for teaching and residencies.

Jared Steer is a well rounded performer who plays with a vast number of projects including Donkilo! (voted Best of NH Band in 2011), The Randy Roos' Urethane, Ben Rudnick and Friends (numerous awards including several parents' choice awards), Bangkok Disco, The Cough's, Sly Richard, The Dane Anderson Trio, WhiteSteer, Laser Show, The Jared Steer Trio, The Wayfarers, solo percussion for yoga classes and meditation. Jared can be seen/heard with a number of different other projects as a freelance artist. He also has recorded on numerous albums with many of the region's top artists. Jared is currently teaching an Advanced Music Production and Performance course as well as private lessons at Holderness.

Lisa Travis is the former Director of Dance at New Hampton School. She has been teaching and choreographing for the past 25 years, after studying dance at the Boston Conservatory of Music. Lisa has performed with modern dance companies in California and Rhode Island and has danced with Emmy Award winner Billbob Brown since 2002. She is the founder and artistic director of Terminal Hip Dance Theater, a colloborative performance group based in Plymouth, NH. Lisa choreographs musicals for private and public high schools in NH, PSU's Department of Theater, the Papermill Theater. Most recently she was a guest choreographer for the Vietnamese National Opera and Ballet.

Marlene White is a Painter/Video artist who enjoys the act of painting. Her studio is located in the middle of Knowland Park in Oakland California. It is here that she finds solitude, between the stillness of night and the daily buzz of urban life. This balance provides a tunnel for her creative mind... “It is here that I find The Breath Of The Brush, where the brush meets the heart." Marlene feels that art can break barriers, and build bridges. She enjoys teaching her process of combining video and painting because she truly believes, that painting is an evolving, living entity and through the marriage of painting and video, the magic is endless. Visit her work and process at Marlenewhite.com.

Sam has had the distinct pleasure of training at I.O.- Chicago (Night Fight), Theatre99 - Charleston, SC (RedTeam), Annoyance (Chicago, NYC), and now The PIT-NYC (Jeanpool). He has toured with his highly successful 2-prov show P.S. I'm Right Behind You with Peter Galle to Detroit Improv Festival, Denver Improv Festival, and Fallback Comedy Festival (Rochester, NY). He can be seen currently with the SFM team Lovers, Gas Station Horror, SideCoach, and more to come.

Her real name is Stacey Lucas, but the name Veggie Art Girl traces back to her roots at her first artsy job, where she drew large vegetables on chalkboards in a grocery store. Stacey saved every penny from that job to put herself through college. Stacy blogs at veggieartgirl.com